How to contribute to Bizcommunity, from op-ed pieces to news

Bizcommunity.com has now expanded its operations into 16 new sectors and will soon venture into another 17, providing a whole new range of target audiences for advertisers. The most critical aspect of this is the quality of content and this is a formal invitation to you to become a recognised contributor on Bizcommunity.

While Bizcommunity retains a dedicated editorial pool and a group of around 265 industry contributors, we always welcome additional contributions, particularly for the new channels we officially launched mid-September 2011.

This is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and all contributor pieces are published together with a byline, portrait pic, short biography and full contact details - and only exclusive contributor pieces are used as headlines/top stories on the portals or newsletters.

Organisations wishing to contribute news can also make use of the following guide of where to send what.

General news

You may make use of the following services for certain kinds of company news:

Exclusive opinion pieces

We don't publish everything we receive as we give priority to exclusive news, breaking news, opinion, thought leadership, case studies, etc. 'Company news or PR puff' is ignored or given to sales as a lead for press offices.

We particularly welcome original and exclusive opinion pieces/features (how to's, articles about industry issues, views, news, trends) which must be written in first person. These are bylined with a two-to-three sentence bio on the writer, including contact details, social media links and a low res portrait picture.

If we receive opinion pieces on a regular basis, we create a permanent profile for the author (see a list of our contributors here and click through to view the individual profiles).

Exclusive opinion pieces are generally kept for use as a headline/top story, and may be held back until there is a top-story slot available (if the piece is of a soft-news nature or not time-sensitive). Hard news/breaking news always takes precedence. Sometimes this means a delay of a couple of weeks between submission and publishing.

Some guidelines for opinion pieces:

600 - 900 words an article; if the piece is long but really good, the editor may allow a longer piece to be run or request that it be broken up into a series of articles

Each article must be relevant to the specific industry portal and its targeted B2B readership

Each article must be bylined and written in the first person and accompanied by a head-and-shoulders full-colour portrait pic (low res, less than 200KB, as we are not a print publication)

A bio of the writer with company title, contact details and social media links must accompany each article:

there may be both a short bio and an extended version

the bio is about the author, not the company, although accomplishments at the company may be mentioned

keep in mind that contact details and social media links will be made public, so only submit details that the author is happy to share with the world

The editors of each portal reserve the right to edit and rewrite headlines, intros and body of the contributor piece to suit the style of Bizcommunity.com, consulting with the writer where necessary

Editorial tends to be very busy and sometimes we are unable to get back to you immediately about if and when we'll use something. It is best to stipulate a date until when the piece is available exclusively to us and, if you've not seen it used by then, go ahead and send it somewhere else or to your press office.

If the piece is time-sensitive, then indicate this in the email subject line and in the cover email.

If you intend to write regularly, please submit roughly once every two weeks (for the Marketing & Media South Africa portal, only once every six weeks or so). More frequently than this may lead to a backlog. If, however, the piece deals with a hot topic that is current, submit immediately but indicate time-sensitivity in the email subject line.

Note that there are two sets of email addresses per industry, one for contributor pieces only and for general news/press releases

DO NOT SPRAY AND PRAY

Do not send to personal email addresses. We have set up mail filters rules to make the news-editing/copytasting process easier, and when editors go on leave or business trips, the email addresses are redirected to the person filling in.

Industry

Contributor

Press releases

Agriculture, Horticulture & Forestry

moc.ytinummoczib@erutlucirga-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenerutlucirga

Arts & Entertainment

moc.ytinummoczib@yrtsudnitnemniatretne-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenyrtsudnitnemniatretne

Automotive

moc.ytinummoczib@evitomotua-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenevitomotua

Corporate wellness

moc.ytinummoczib@swenssenllew

Environment & Conservation

moc.ytinummoczib@latnemnorivne-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenlatnemnorivne

Finance, Accounting & Banking

moc.ytinummoczib@ecnanif-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenecnanif

Fishing & Maritime

moc.ytinummoczib@emitiram-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenemitiram

Government

moc.ytinummoczib@tnemnrevog-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swentnemnrevog

Health & Beauty

moc.ytinummoczib@ytuaebhtlaeh-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenytuaebhtlaeh

Human Resources & Recruitment

moc.ytinummoczib@rh-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenrh

International

moc.ytinummoczib@lanoitanretni-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenlanoitanretni

IT & Telecommunications

moc.ytinummoczib@ti-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenti

Legal

moc.ytinummoczib@lagel-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenlagel

Lifestyle (Entertainment, Music, Theatre, Art, Movies etc)

moc.ytinummoczib@elytsefil-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@egnuol

Logistics

moc.ytinummoczib@scitsigol-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenscitsigol

Management

moc.ytinummoczib@swentnemeganam

Manufacturing

moc.ytinummoczib@gnirutcafunam-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swengnirutcafunam

Media & Marketing Africa

moc.ytinummoczib@acirfa-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenacirfa

Media & Marketing South Africa

moc.ytinummoczib@gnitekram-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swengnitekram

Medical

moc.ytinummoczib@lacidem-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenlacidem

Motoring

moc.ytinummoczib@gnirotom-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swengnirotom

Retail

moc.ytinummoczib@liater-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenliater

Science & Technology

moc.ytinummoczib@hcetecneics-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenhcetecneics

Tourism, Travel & Hospitality

moc.ytinummoczib@msiruot-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenmsiruot

Travel

moc.ytinummoczib@levart-srotubirtnoc

moc.ytinummoczib@swenlevart

About press offices

We also offer press offices and the advantage of running a press release through a press office include the following:

Branding, profile and full contact details and social media links are included

Past news is conveniently archived for readers' perusal

Every time a release is published through a press office, the company logo is included on the front page and in the relevant section under "In the News".

None of this additional value is afforded with editorial coverage of a piece, which could also be extensively edited or edited down to become a snippet/in brief before finally being published, if it is considered newsworthy.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This Message Board accepts no liability of legal consequences that arise from the Message Boards (e.g. defamation, slander, or other such crimes). All posted messages are the sole property of their respective authors. The maintainer does retain the right to remove any message posts for whatever reasons. People that post messages to this forum are not to libel/slander nor in any other way depict a company, entity, individual(s), or service in a false light; should they do so, the legal consequences are theirs alone. Bizcommunity.com will disclose authors' IP addresses to authorities if compelled to do so by a court of law.

Wow - BizCommunity has come a LONG way in the last few years. I haven't been on for awhile, and got sent a link to an article. THREE HOURS later & I'm still looking at the different sections. Congrats to the whole team for some amazing content.